Follow the journey of three little girls as they travel to China with their parents to adopt a little brother, Kai.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

A few things about our little Kai

First of all, he is small. I mean VERY small. All the clothes we brought are too big. A size 6-12 months fits him perfectly. We made a Walmart run last night to buy him a few new duds. I was worried that he would be very behind developmentally because of his size, but that's not the case at all. He's very smart and quick to pick up new things. He loves to figure out how things work and has a great attention span.

Second of all, he's got a lot of hair!!! It's actually driving me crazy and I can't wait to trim it. We've got the only boy in China who doesn't have a buzz cut. Everywhere you go there are little boys with hardly any hair and then there's Kai who could be a child spokesmodel for Pantene.

Third of all, he speaks Chinese. I know what you're saying, this shouldn't be a shock to us because of his age, but from all we had read cleft babies have very limited speech until their palates are repaired. Well, Kai talks quite a bit. His caretakers told us he did, but he waited until the fourth day to show us. We do a lot of smiling and nodding which must seem pretty dumb to a 2 1/2 year old.

Fourth of all, he's half way potty trained. Meaning he goes number 1 on the potty, but so far not number 2. It's pretty confusing because he doesn't tell us he needs to go, but just waits for us to remember to take him.

Last of all, he is loving, sweet, smart, fun and a little rotten. He thinks his sisters are pretty funny, but occasionally likes to lob hard objects at their heads without warning. He really shows his personality in the hotel room, but shuts down when we go outside. I can tell he understands what the Chinese people are saying about him and it makes me feel sad for him. They stand very close and stare without looking away for a long time. They talk and gesture about him and he clings to me for dear life. Their loss.

2 comments:

I know well the nodding and smiling as Jia talked her head off in Mandarin... I was just lucky enough to know a little Chinese - and she was astute enough to use pointing and taking me to show me things she was talking about!

Believe me - if this kiddo is talking, he's a really bright, intelligent and resourceful kid - and he'll be talking English so fast your head will spin.